This application claims priority from U.K. Patent Application No. 0112077.3 filed May 17, 2001.
THIS INVENTION RELATES TO lids for containers, such as xe2x80x9ctake-awayxe2x80x9d hot and cold beverage containers.
Conventionally, a number of different types of lids may be used for hot and cold beverage containers, which are usually in the form of plastics or paper cups. Such lids are intended to provide a degree of retention of the beverage in the container when that container is accidentally knocked, shaken or tilted, whilst also allowing the beverage to be consumed as required. Such containers and such lids are single-use disposable items and, accordingly, must be capable of being produced at a low cost.
A typical disposable lid for such a beverage container is formed from thin plastics sheet material, for example by vacuum forming, and comprises a top panel with a downwardly depending peripheral rim. The plastics material of the lid is somewhat resilient so that the lid can be fitted over the open top of a suitably sized beverage container so that the rim of the lid grips the rim of the open end of the container, whereby the beverage is retained within the container. When the user wishes to drink the beverage, he or she must first remove the plastic lid and subsequently drink from the container as from a conventional cup. If the user subsequently wishes to store some of the beverage until later then he or she can replace the lid accordingly. The disadvantage of such a lid is that when the lid is removed, so that the user may drink from the container, the whole of the open end of the container is exposed resulting in a high risk of spillage of the beverage should the container be accidentally shaken, knocked or tilted.
In a known development of the basic plastic lid described above, a lid is provided with an aperture positioned at a point near to the rim of the lid. The aperture is chosen so that it is sufficiently enlarged to allow a user to drink from the container without having to remove the lid itself, but sufficiently small to reduce the risk of spillage of the beverage if the container is tilted or shaken. In addition, the aperture may be initially blocked by a press out tab or flap which can be pushed into the container when initial discharge of the beverage is required. However, although such an arrangement reduces the risk of spillage compared to the basic removable plastic lid, spillage may still occur upon undesired tilting or shaking of the container. Furthermore, once the tab or flap which covers the aperture has been pushed in there is no further means provided on the lid for re-sealing the aperture should the user wish to save some of the beverage for consumption at a later date.
In yet another known modification of the basic plastic removable lid, two intersecting perpendicular slits are positioned at or around the centre of the lid so as to form four small flaps. The slits are sufficiently long, and the material of the lid is sufficiently thin and flexible, to allow a straw to be inserted at the intersection of the slots to deflect these flaps and pass the latter to extend into the beverage within the container, the beverage then being sucked from the container through the straw. Although the slit and straw arrangement largely prevents spillage of the beverage due to tilting or shaking, it does not completely prevent escape of the container contents, for example if the container is accidentally squeezed. Furthermore, the use of a straw to remove the beverage from the container is not always desirable, particularly in the case of hot beverages such as tea or coffee
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a lid which can be fitted to a container to prevent spillage of the contents while allowing the contents to be easily consumed when required, and which is yet inexpensive to manufacture and store.
According to the present invention there is provided a container lid comprising:
i) a main body portion having an aperture therein; and
ii) a flexible arm portion, attached to said body portion and having a closure member positioned thereon;
and in which the closure member, whilst still attached via the flexible arm portion to the main body portion, can be moved between a first position, in which the closure member closes off the aperture, and a second position, in which the aperture is open.
Preferably, said body portion further incorporates a retaining element capable of receiving said closure member, wherein the closure member, in a said second position, whilst still attached via the flexible arm portion to the main body portion, can engage with the retaining element, to be retained thereby.
Preferably, the lid, which may, for example, be formed by a vacuum forming or similar process conducted on an initially flat, thin sheet of plastics material deformable or mouldable when sufficiently heated, comprises a peripheral edge lying substantially in a plane and wherein said flexible arm portion is in the form of a web, or strip, a of a thickness small in relation to its initial width and length and which in an initial position thereof, in which the closure member is out of engagement with said aperture, lies in said plane of said peripheral edge, in one position of said arm portion.
Thus in manufacture of the preferred form of lid in accordance with the invention, by a vacuum forming or similar process, known per se, a large number of such lids are formed simultaneuously from an initially flat thin sheet of thermoplastics material heated to a temperature at which it is plastically deformable, and which process displaces, out of the plane of the sheet, portions defining a top and a surrounding rim of each lid. In such process, said closure for each lid is formed by similarly displacing the material of the sheet from said plane at a place in the sheet adjoining the displaced regions which will form the top and rim of the respective lid, and thereafter such sheet material is severed around the periphery of said rim of each lid to define said edge in the plane of such sheet material and likewise there is severed, from the sheet material, a portion, remaining attached to the body portion of the respective lid, at such rim, to form said flexible arm terminating in said closure. The aperture in the lid may be formed at this stage by punching out a patch of the sheet material, in the top of the lid, of a size and shape corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the projection or protrusion, which forms said closure, or an area apt to form such aperture may simply be defined at this stage by forming a line of weakness in the respective lid top around the intended periphery of said aperture, to allow the aperture to be formed at a later stage, for example by the end user of the lid, by punching out the region bounded by that line of weakness.